The European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter was successfully launched last week from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan. It is one of several projects to be aimed at exploring the Red Planet this year. The probe, which was propelled out of the Earth's orbit by two burns of the Fregat upper stage of the Starsem Soyuz FG booster, carries the Beagle 2 lander and will be followed later this year by two NASA Mars Exploration Rovers scheduled for launch on Delta II boosters from Cape Canaveral, Florida. See feature P86
Source: Flight International
